Chaur ka Maidan
Chaur Ka Maidan is a beatiful plain in the Siran Valley. It is connected from three ends: one connects through a long way and ends up at Chattar Plain on the KKH. The other connects to Alai valley and you can reach KKH at Thakot. The third connection is close to Musa Ka Masalla range and you reach Jaboori area. Basic Info Trek Name: Chaur Ka Maidan Range: Himalaya Maximum Height: No. of trekking days: 6 days Trek starts from: Khatore Trek ends at: Karak, Alai Total no. of days: 9 days Itinerary Reaching starting point From Mansehra, you can reach Chattar Plain (KKH) using wan service and from main bazaar of Chattar Plan, the Jeep trek for Khatore leads towards right. The Jeep trek is difficult with some sharp turns and it takes around 2 hours to reach Khatore where there is a Forest rest house where you can stay. In 1997, the keeper of rest house was Ghulam Mustafa who was a very helping and nice person. Day 1 of trek: Khatore to Tipri From Khatore, there are two routes to reach Bhaleja ground and we opted for the one that leads to left and goes through Jungle. Though this route was short but it turned out to be difficult and we got lost as we did not arrange a guide as yet. Any how from Jungle an upward trek takes you to Tipri which is a small settlement on hilltop and you can view Batgram city from here. There are few ‘Dhaaras’ where you can stay or you can camp out but look for a place which is not windy. Total trekking time was 7 hours and trek is mostly muddy as it was raining last night and day also. Day 2 of trek: Tipri to Barra Doga From Tipri, we took the route of Bhaleja ground which is a splendid grassy ‘maidaan’ and during this patch, we also saw clear view of Mussa ka Masalla in front of us. Bhaleja ground is a good place to take many pictures. Since we reached Bhaleja early in the day, we decided to continue trekking and took an upward trek which was full of stones to reach Barra Doga by the evening. Barra Doga also offers some grassy grounds where you can camp and small settlements are also there where you can find some food also. It was heard that from here, a trek leads to Jabori but details could not be found out. Total trekking time for this day was 6 hours where first part was quite refreshing but later part was a bit tough. Day 3 of trek: Barra Doga to Chunj Top Couple of members were not feeling well, so we opted for a light trekking day of 4 hours. If it requires, one can reach day 1 to Bhaleja and then reach Chunj Top the next day thus doing this in 2 days rather than 3 days. From Barra Doga to Chunj Baara, there is a slippery stone filled descent and then there is ascent on green patches towards the Chunj Top which is exhausting. On the top, there is a mosque, where you can spend the night. Day 4 of trek: Chunj Top to Sohni Sir to Larri Kass This day was started early around 6:30 AM and the route till the Sohni Sir top was a tough ascent which also included crossing couple of glaciers. The trek also had small stones which made the ascent much slippery. However the beautiful lake rightly named as Sohni Sir offered a view that took away the tiredness and lot of photos were taken at the place. It takes 4-5 hours to reach the lake which is on the right side of the top. In early summer, the lake was half frozen and offered very pictureous views. After staying for 1.5 hours, the trek leading downwards to Choar Ka Maidan was taken. In the beginning, it was all muddy for about 1 hour or so and later on the descent was on a glacier for 3 hours. Before the Glacier starts, you can opt to stay at Khay Gali which is a bit off route. Reaching the Maidan, you can either stay on the side of the nadi or you can go to the near by Larri Kas settlement where there is a mosque to spend night. You can also get food items like rice or flour from here. Total trekking time for this day was 9-10 hours. Day 5 of trek: Move around in the Plains The original plan was to go to Satole and camp there and then attempt Musa Ka Musalla from there. But 2 members got sick on the last day and were not able to trek more. So they were given a rest day and remaining members of the team spent the day moving around the Grassy Choare ka Maidan. It took us around 6 hours to go and come back though due to rain we couldn’t reach Satole but there were small bakarwal settlements all along the day and you could see many animals being fed on the green pastures. From Satole, you can also reach Sharran in Kaghan in a 2 days trek or take the Musa ka Musalla attempt and then reach Jaboori. Day 6 of trek: Larri Kass to Karak We took the plan B which took us out of Choar Ka Maidan and landed into the Alai valley. The glacier from the Larri Kass takes to the top and then you can follow the trek to reach Jabur. It took us about 4 hours to reach there in which the first few hours to reach top were tough. Jabur was a beautiful settlement in Jungle and was a perfect camping site but we decided to move on. In Jabur there is a restaurant where you can have lunch on order. The remaining trek was a winding trek into small settlements and offered beautiful views. We reached Raashang in around 3-4 more . Raashang was like a small town and we arranged a Jeep from there which took us to Karag. Getting back In Karang, night was spent on a ‘Manji’ hotel and next morning we took the van to Mansehra which followed the route of Thakote, Batgram. Trek Options Explain other possible routes and connections to other treks. Costing Info Provide your estimates of per person cost. And any info on Porter rates, jeep rates, rents etc. Contact Points Ghulam Mustafa was the Gaurd at Khatore in 1997. Majd uddin, Latif Qaiser, Maqbool Mubasher, Mirza Waqas Ahmad, Nasir Daud and Ata ul Hayee did it in Summer 1997.